Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) has provided an operational update on the company's Murchison gold operations in Western Australia.
As advised to the market on 1 July 2013, the company has been finalising budgets for the year ending 30 June 2014 focussing on deferring capital and reducing costs across the business to maximise cashflow.
Due to the current challenging gold price environment the Murchison gold operations have been optimised to produce gold from open pit operations in FY14 and defer the development of the underground Caustons mine for approximately 12 months.
Les Davis, managing director, told Proactive Investors today: "This decision is a deferment only and does not have a material impact on this year's coming production.
"We are fortunate enough to have multiple ore sources in the Murchison that can be optimised at prevailing gold prices to ensure sustainability of operations.
"The development of the Caustons mine can be readily recommenced at any time".
Initial ore drive production from the Caustons underground mine was expected in the September 2013 quarter.
Supply feed to the mill for FY14 will be maintained at 1.2 million tonnes per annum rates from continued mining of multiple open pits and historic stockpiles.
Underground development at the Caustons mine is now in the process of ceasing and will be put on care and maintenance in readiness for start-up at a later point.
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